First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, in an interview with representatives of Asian media, expressed hope for the creation of an international coalition to return Ukrainian children deported to the Russian Federation, as proposed by Canadian representatives at a meeting of national security and foreign policy advisers held in Malta at the end of October.

“What do we want from the international community? During the meeting in Malta, Canada made a proposal to create an international coalition for the return of Ukrainian children. It was supported by 66 countries - to create such a coalition, to have constant monitoring, to receive data from Russia and all together somehow in this way we can influence the return of Ukrainian children,” Zelenska said.

As she noted, “many individual countries are involved in the process of returning children, in particular, partners from Qatar.” “But this is not an official activity and it is complicated by the fact that Russia does not negotiate,” Zelenska added.

“We want every country in the world that has a voice on international platforms to support this coalition and strengthen its voice in support of Ukrainian children,” she said.

At the same time, the First Lady of Ukraine emphasized: “We want all processes for the return of Ukrainian children to be humane, to comply with all legislative norms and children’s rights that exist in the world. We are ready for the international community to monitor [this issue] and helped us with this. It’s our right to take them, but we want it to be right,” she noted.

During conversations with journalists from Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia and Singapore, Zelenska said that currently Ukraine has managed to return 387 of its young citizens out of more than 19,000 deported to the aggressor country.

Answering the question what message she would convey to residents of Asian countries, the First Lady of Ukraine noted: “You cannot turn a blind eye to aggression, even if you are far away. Recent events have shown: you need to respond to aggression, tyranny, any evil in the world in a timely manner. Aggression anywhere in the world is a marker of common danger."